Mahesh Sharma

Microsoft's new gesture-controlled keyboard is the latest in a long line of attempts to improve on the character-input mechanism that has remained virtually unchanged since its debut more than 100 years ago.

Like-it-or-not, Qwerty is here to stay.

At the Computer Human Interaction conference in Canada this week, the company's researchers revealed a keyboard that detects motion gestures via two-way, infra-red proximity sensors placed between the keys.

The keyboards that never quite made it off the page

Inventors of all shapes and sizes have attempted to improve on the original but the humble QWERTY keyboard is still going strong after making its first appearance in the 1860s.

Users can tell the computer what to do with gestures by hovering their hands above the keyboard to switch applications, swiping to scroll up and down documents, and pinching fingers as one would on a smartphone, to zoom in on maps.

Advertisement

It is not the first time someone has tinkered with the standard tool connecting our thoughts to the analog and digital world.

The tried and tested Qwerty keyboard model has persisted since its first appearance in a typewriter patent application filed in 1868 by US politician, newsman and inventor Christopher Sholes.

However, last year researchers at St Andrews University proposed a completely revamped, thumb-based version for modern smartphone and tablet devices. Dubbed "KALQ" - for the four keys on the bottom right of the layout - the most common letters were clustered into two blocks, while frequently used keys were placed on alternate sides to distribute the typing work evenly across both hands.

Dr Antti Oulasvirta claimed that after 10 hours of training, users' thumbs typed 37 words per minute - almost double the average pace on a Qwerty keyboard.

"The key to optimising a keyboard for two thumbs is to minimise long typing sequences that only involve a single thumb," Dr Oulasvirta said. "Experienced typists move their thumbs simultaneously: while one is typing, the other is approaching its next target. We derived a predictive model of this behaviour for the optimisation method."

Curator of Canberra's Australian Typewriter Museum Robert Messenger said challengers come and go but, like it or not, Qwerty is here to stay.

He pointed to the emergence of the Dvorak simplified keyboard in the 1930s. Despite boasting faster typing speeds and a more intuitive typing interface - where vowels and consonants were separated on different lines and the most commonly used letters were alternated across both hands - it failed to gain mainstream traction.

"To introduce a universal keyboard, in another configuration, would take a colossal mind change right across the world. I just can't see people changing their habits," Mr Messenger said. "It strikes me that it's in your genes. It's a language we learn growing up, like listening to the words that our parents speak. It's the same thing to use a keyboard to express yourself in writing."

Six keyboards that sounded like a good idea at the time (according to honkiat.com and others)